Guest Page – Emily Brackhan

Guest strip made by Emily Brackhan, creator of the webcomic Gambit Tactics. Go check it out and add it to your Comic Rocket list. I did.

Wow, my first ever guest page! How do I describe what it’s like to have someone else drawing the characters and sets I created? Is honored the right word? But there’s also this odd sense of satisfaction in my own work. Granted, my artwork is not so bad as to make any of my characters indistinguishable or any such thing, but I still kinda feel like saying “Aha! Triumph! People can properly recognize my characters well enough to duplicate them properly!” Yeah, it doesn’t make any logical sense, but it still makes me feel a little giddy to notice details I’ve put in my comic that have been re-created here.

And I just want to publicly say how much I love how Dr. Ou^A looks. I don’t even know where to begin with how to describe what it’s like seeing another artist’s depiction of such a non-human character. Whether I’m spying a detail that matches what I’ve drawn or that strays into more original adaptation, I just have this odd sense of pleasure to see it. Is this how other artists feel when they receive guest work?

I’m also very pleased that this first guest page came from someone who actually has a good measure of artistic talent; when I started my webcomic I got worried I might be obligated to post some guest page of questionable quality. From what I’ve seen of guest pages on other comics, they can be something of a grab-bag in terms of quality. “Oh gee, thanks for these scribbles of your baby’s ultrasound; I’ll uhh… cherish it forever. What? No, I know these are my characters you drew; that one is… Jack from Jack in the Box?” Yeah, that’s an awkward conversation I’m happy to avoid.

And to those who draw comics of questionable quality: I’m willing to accept guest pages from you now, since you won’t be the first and won’t hold the statistical majority anymore.

Also, good news for anyone who likes these fillers more than the comic! GIMP crashed while saving a file, reducing one my pages to rubble. That’s gonna cost me another day.